Published: May 20, 2008 05:49 pm      

ONE LAST MISSION: NT vet tries to get comrades to their monument

It’s probably a beautiful monument. But, without a little bit of help, many of the area’s World War II veterans it was built to honor will never get to lay eyes on it.

That is a troubling thought to Harry Kuligowski, 88, a North Tonawanda man who worries about the declining numbers of WW II veterans.

“There were 15 million men who served in that war,” he said, “and right now there are supposedly only about 3 million of them left.”

Kuligowski, who was awarded two Purple Hearts for his war contributions, has created one last mission for himself. He wants to bring a program to Buffalo that flies World War II veterans to the Washington, D.C., monument, free of charge.

The national nonprofit program is called Honor Flight. It was started in Springfield, Ohio, by retired Air Force flight medic Earl Morse.

Morse, who became a physicians assistant when he retired from the Air Force, was working in a veterans’ hospital in 2004 when the monument was dedicated. It was the topic of conversation among many of the veterans he cared for.

“It became painfully obvious that there was no way they were ever going to be able to see the memorial,” he said.

Further motivation came when he took his father to see the monument.

“I wasn’t ready for him to start crying,” Morse said. “All of a sudden my allergies flared up pretty bad,” he added, kiddingly trying to explain why his eyes also filled as he watch his father’s reaction to the memorial.

It became clear to Morse that somebody had to get more veterans to Washington. All of the military planes were already engaged. So Morse created Honor Flight. None of the planes has yet taken off from Western New York because Morse has been unable to find a nonprofit organization to take lead responsibility for the local effort.

There are currently 3,000 vets on an Honor Flight waiting list nationally, and North Tonawanda’s Kuligowski is pretty sure that there are plenty of veterans in this area who would take a ride in a heartbeat. His efforts have started a small movement to do just that.

As soon as they heard his story, two military support agencies agreed to begin the efforts to get Niagara-area veterans to Washington.

Debbie Mellon, volunteer president of the nonprofit Friends and Family Support Group at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, said her organization could act as a temporary front group for the local effort.

Her organization was created primarily to support the members of the 914th Airlift Wing and their families, so Mellon is hopeful another nonprofit group might step forward in a leadership role if the Honor Flight effort flies.

“Our organization would love to see this happen, and we would love to help in any way we can for the first inaugural flight,” she said, “but we would hope that the community would come forward with monetary and volunteer support so that this can become a program that will serve all our World War II vets in the area.”

Another volunteer agency that is willing to lend its formidable support to the effort is the Niagara Military Affairs Council commonly referred to as NIMAC, the once 800-member strong group which fought to keep the air base open two years ago.

“I have some personal interest in (Honor Flight) because my father is a World War II veteran, and I’ve been to the monument with him and seen how much he enjoyed it and how much it meant to him,” said John Cooper, vice chairman of NIMAC.

Cooper said that although NIMAC is basically a “military/business” organization founded to support the air base, “we’re willing to be a conduit for other organizations that may want to be part of this effort but could not support it totally.”

Nonprofits such as veterans groups, community organizations and school boards have stepped up across the country, according to Honor Flight’s Morse. When school boards become lead agency, students have joined the flights as guardians and were able to learn about military history first-hand from men who lived it, he said.

In the meantime, the man who initiated the effort to get local veterans on Honor Flight, knows that the clock is ticking for area veterans.

Opening a box of momentos from the war, Kuligowski shows a 1945 photo of himself as a smiling young man. The image counters the difficulty he has in sharing his war stories, which include two battle injuries and horrific memories from the days he spent liberating a German concentration camp.

Although he would be happy to be on the first flight leaving the area for the monument, Kuligowski said that his efforts are not so much about his feelings, but rather a mission to do what is right.

“This is not about how I feel,” he said. “I’m doing this on behalf of the remaining vets.”

People interested in helping to support and fund the Honor Flight mission in the Niagara region can contact Debbie Mellon at 425-0267.

Contact editor Michele DeLuca at 693-1000, ext. 157.